Scops Owl Portrait

[Morkel Erasmus]

I have just returned from a trip to the Kalahari (Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park). Birding was subdued (at least for me, there were too many lions around for me to focus on the birds properly ) but I did enjoy having this small Scops Owl sit right next to the road on a sand embankment in the last light of day one afternoon. It was quite relaxed and I was able to move closer. To give you an idea - they are about as big as a small dove. This was my first trip with my recently acquired D800, and man did the camera blow me away!

This is a crop to vertical from a horizontal frame. Resulting crop is still over 4100 pixels high. You can see my SUV reflected in the owl's eyes.

Techs:
Nikon D800 with Nikkor 500mm f4 VR-II
f5.6 @ 1/800 SS @ ISO-2200

[Greg Oakley]

Superb portrait Morkel!
Cheers Greg

[Miguel Palaviccini]

Morkel - this isn't in Black and White! haha. great portrait! That D800 sure is something else, isn't it?

I might consider lightening up the left eye (our right), so that they are of equal brightness. Otherwise, great shot.

[Raymond Lee]

Great portrait! I agree with Miguel. In addition, I would clean out that small dark spot on the right hand side of the frame. Even though the eyes of the owl draw me in, that dark spot kind of distracts me a bit.

[dankearl]

Very nice, Morkel.
Glad you like the D800, you just doubled your focal length!
The eyes look like marbles.

[John Cooper]

A nice portrait Morkel of an interesting looking owl - love its little beard either side of its bill. Would like to have seen just a tad more DOF but I guess you were after max SS for a hand-held capture.

[Robert Holguin]

Wow!!
Excellent close up shot. Superb details, just love the stare, great comp, and beautiful eyes.
Very well done.

[Shawn Zierman]

Beautiful eye contact...compelling and holds my attention. I agree with Raymond regarding the dark
spot in the bg to the right of the owl. Were you able to work any wider angles that might give a better
sense as to the scale of the owl?

[christopher galeski]

very nice portrait Morkel,love the eyes,agree on removing the dark spot on the right.thanks.

[Randy Stout]

Morkel:

Very enchanting picture, and the limited DOF makes it all about the eyes, very dreamy feel. Subdued colors except for the eyes also strengthens the image.

Cheers

Randy

[Cheryl Arena Molennor]

So... were the lions distracting cause youd much prefer shooting them or was it because they might wanna eat you? I like this portrait and I like that beard too

[Morkel Erasmus]

Thanks for the kind comments, folks.

1. I had the ID wrong - shows you how poor a birder I am - it's a Southern White-Faced Owl (but is often confused with the Scops Owl).
2. I was timid to push to f8 given the ISO I was shooting at. Having seen the results of this set of images and another set at ISO-6400 I would not be timid again. The beauty of the D800 is that you can always downscale to assist with the noise, but at full res the noise isn't that bad to begin with! Certainly comparable to the D7000 which I also shoot with and about 1.5 to 2 stops behind the D3s (rough estimation).
3. I will leave the darker patch. I tend to stay away from cloning, eases up my workflow so I don't need to have 2 separate images should I want to enter this into photo club sessions or competitions. Plus it renders the scene as I saw it - naturally. Each to his own and I don't shun the practice as a whole.

[Tim King]

Nice portrait. I like the long whiskers along the sides of the bill.